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Reasons To Attend An Inpatient Rehab

Rehabilitation programs - particularly inpatient or residential rehabs - typically provide addicts with the education, tools, therapy, counseling, and information they need to stop using drugs and drinking alcohol. However, you might not know some of the reasons to attend an inpatient rehab. You may also not have any idea about how you should go about choosing one or if the option is even right for you.

In this guide, we will go over the main reasons to attend an inpatient rehab and help you find the right one.

About Addiction

Recovering from drug or alcohol addiction requires full dedication. The process of recovery, however, will start the moment you realize that you have been struggling with chemical dependence and realize that you need help to overcome it.

Although making the decision about the type of rehabilitation and treatment facility you will attend will come during the earliest stage of your recovery, it might still prove to be the most important factor to guaranteeing your long term sobriety and abstinence.

After you have admitted that you have a problem with dependence, the next question should be about the steps you are going to take to deal with the problem. Today, there are so many treatment and rehabilitation facilities that you might not know which one to pick.

However, you should keep in mind that inpatient rehab options are now considered to be the gold standard in as far as the treatment of substance use disorders and addiction are concerned. This is because the programs will typically provide round the clock care as well as a long term treatment option that could provide you with lasting positive changes in your life.

Still, attending rehab can prove to be more intimidating than you anticipated. However, it does not need to be this way. In fact, you will soon realize that most inpatient rehab programs are similar to adult education courses. They are only different in the format and in what is included in the programs, such as but not limited to:

a) Daily Schedules

When you commit to treatment you will typically be required to attend different therapy sessions on a daily basis. In most cases, you may be asked to attend a certain number of counseling sessions every week.

Therefore, the schedule in such a rehabilitation programs may be highly organized and operate on a continuous basis. Therefore, when you check into the facility, you will be expected to follow the established daily schedules according to your individualized treatment plan.

b) Clear Limits

The primary goal of inpatient rehab is to help you overcome your addiction and chemical dependence as well as achieve a life of sobriety and maintain it. In most cases, therefore, alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs will outline clear - and sometimes strict - guidelines and rules that you must follow.

These guidelines and rules are set to ensure that the facility is safe as well as to provide you with an established order and routine in your day to day life at the center. Although you might resist these limits, complying with them is the best way to ensure you benefit from the full program on offer at the facility.

c) Psychotherapy

To achieve full abstinence and long term sobriety, inpatient rehab often employs some important modalities in analyzing behavior and thoughts around substance abuse. For instance, individual therapy could help you change your thought patterns and behaviors while treating any underlying or co-occurring mental health issues that could have led to or been caused by your addiction.

The other psychological modalities that are applied in these rehabilitation and treatment centers include:

Motivational Interviewing

Group Therapy Sessions

Family Counseling

Contingency Management

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

d) Pharmacotherapy/Medications

Although not everyone who attends inpatient rehab will receive medications, the doctors at the facility might prescribe some pharmaceutical treatments for you. These include drugs to address any adverse withdrawal symptoms, treat underlying and co-occurring mental health issues like depression and anxiety, as well as help reduce your cravings and urges to use.

However, since every case is unique, you need to talk to your addiction counselor to get more information about the medications that might be prescribed to you based on your substance use disorder.

Why Attend Inpatient Rehab?

But what exactly are some reasons to attend an inpatient rehab? This is a question that many addicts and those who are chemically dependent on mind altering and intoxicating substances tend to ask when they are making the decision about the best type of treatment for their condition.

Although you may initially assume that outpatient rehab is the best option for you, it is imperative that you review the benefits that inpatient rehab programs provide before you make a final decision.

For starters, undergoing treatment on an inpatient basis will help you focus more on yourself and your recovery without the judgements, opinions, ideas, thoughts, and stresses of other people get in the way of your road to sobriety.

These programs will also provide you with an unique opportunity to completely remove yourself from all situations, temptations, individuals, and triggers that could compel you to relapse and start using drugs and drinking alcohol again.

Of course, one of the main reasons to attend an inpatient rehab is that it can help you overcome your addiction. Once you get sober, you will enjoy many other benefits, including but not necessarily limited to:

Reconciling with family, friends, and loved ones who were devastated by your drug and alcohol abuse

Less need to hide your alcohol or drug abuse due to anger or shame

Fewer problems and run-ins with the law

Fewer financial crises

A healthier lifestyle

The other reasons why an inpatient rehab might be preferable to you include:

a) No Judgments

Since you have been using intoxicating and mind altering substances, it is highly likely that you may feel ashamed of the decisions you made - particularly those that directly or indirectly affected your loved ones.

In many cases drugs and alcohol might have made you act in ways you never thought possible. You may, for instance, have lied to your loved ones, stolen from them, or hurt them in many other ways.

As you try to recover from addiction while these people are close by might make the process harder or even impossible. This is one of the reasons to attend an inpatient rehab because it will allow you to escape them and any judgements that they might have. In the process, you will better be able to focus solely on recovering and attaining a life of sobriety and abstinence.

b) Set Schedule

Today, research from the medical community shows that people who follow set schedules and stick to them have a higher likelihood of achieving great feats and actualizing their dreams - such as recovering from addiction. This is in comparison to those who have greater flexibility and more freedom in their schedules.

When you choose outpatient rehab, no one will hold you accountable for anything you do. This means that you will have freedom to show up for stress management classes, counselling sessions, and group meetings whenever you feel like and skip those that are less of a priority for you - especially when you want to engage in other activities or if you are too busy to attend in the first place. Outpatient rehab required a tremendous amount of self-discipline which the majority of addicts simply do not have.

Inpatient rehab, on the other hand, effectively removes all these other secondary priorities from the picture. It will also require you to follow set schedules as well as attend meetings and therapy sessions at certain times on a daily basis.

The structure that they provide, therefore, might enable you to focus your attention more on recovering and getting better as well as eliminating every other priority apart from your health and wellness. This way, you will be able to overcome your addiction without having to worry that you need to work a shift, attend classes, take care of other business, or spend time with your family.

c) Constant Monitoring and Supervision

When you try to avoid alcohol and drugs at home, you might have a hard time especially because you already know what you need to do to get your hands on them, how much the substances cost, and where you can get them.

Although your loved ones deeply care about and love you, and may even want you to start getting sober and clear, they might not always be around to supervise you around the clock - every single day of the week.

Enrolling into outpatient drug treatment, therefore, gives you all the freedom that could make it easier for you to start abusing the substances you are trying to stay away from in the first place.

In inpatient rehab, however, this is not the case. In fact, residential treatment programs may even be forced to limit your movements and freedom - meaning that you will no longer be able to go anywhere or do anything you pleasure.

Additionally, inpatient rehab will provide you with constant, round the clock care, supervision, and monitoring. There will also be a team of addiction treatment professionals always on the lookout on your behalf to ensure you do not start using again.

d) Emergency Support

In case you have tried to stop drinking alcohol or abusing other intoxicating substances in the past through your own volition and without any help whatsoever, it is highly likely that you might have suffered withdrawal symptoms - some of which can last anywhere from a couple of hours to several days or weeks.

These symptoms might cause you to vomit, feel nausea, and leave you dealing with stomach cramps, diarrhea, muscle pains, headaches, or even constipation - among many others. Additionally, withdrawal also comes with the danger of seizures or falling into a coma or even - in the most extreme of cases - losing your health and life.

To ensure that this does not happen, inpatient rehab will provide you with any emergency care and support you are highly likely to need if you end up suffering severe withdrawal. They also offer emergency support for recovering addicts who suffer panic attacks and cravings, as well as other adverse effects while at the facility.

e) Avoid Temptations

Among the hardest thing to do as you get over your substance abuse and addiction will learning how to deal with temptations, situations, people, and triggers. For instance, you may be in a living situation where other people are still using intoxicating and mind altering substances.

Alternatively, you could run into your dealer when you go out or encounter environments that you have now come to associate with your old experiences of substance abuse and addiction - such as houses and nightclubs you attended parties at to use drugs and/or drink alcohol.

Since avoiding temptation is such an important part of recovery - particularly in the early days of your sobriety, it might be in your best interests to check into inpatient rehab centers first to ensure that you first overcome your substance abuse before plunging right back into the world with all its temptations.

This is why it is highly recommended that you check into one of these facilities. From there, you will be able to find recovery as well as avoid, fight, and overcome every temptation you come across. Your counselors and therapists can also teach you some effective ways to deal with any temptation you come across.

f) Limited Access

One of the other reasons to attend an inpatient rehab revolves around the fact that these facilities limit any access and connections you might still have to the external environment beyond the treatment center.

If you go for outpatient treatment and end up fighting with close friends and significant others, it is highly likely that you might start craving your drugs of choice and start looking for them.

At an inpatient rehab center, this is hardly ever the case. Your access will be limited to ensure that you overcome your addiction and substance abuse. For instance, if you experience anxiety or stress while still at the treatment facility, you may still be able to overcome these negative emotions and control your feelings before they take you over and force you to go binge drinking or start abusing other drugs.

You will also be able to talk with residential counselors, therapists, and other recovering addicts to ensure that you don't feel an equally intense urge to start using again. The facilities may also limit any access you have to people, situations, and environments that could make you want to start abusing drugs again.

Additionally, these facilities will typically emphasize on the importance of thinking about yourself over and above anyone or anything else. This way, you may learn how to start putting your own needs first. Eventually, this could help you get the power you need to fight your substance abuse and addiction.

By limiting any contact you might still have with the outside world and external environment, the facilities may enable you to effective use your energy and fortitude to get the past behind and start looking forward and working toward your future.

Benefits Of Inpatient Drug Treatment And Rehab

When you enroll in an inpatient rehab center, you will effectively be rewarding yourself with what you need most to start getting better - focus and time. This will allow you to start your recovery process and journey to full sobriety properly. In fact, studies now show that the choice between the wrong program and the right one could make a world of difference between long term sobriety and short term relapse.

Today, these same studies have identified many other benefits that you are likely to enjoy when you decide to attend inpatient rehab. These benefits also comprise other reasons to attend an inpatient rehab - and you might not get them anywhere else. Most of these benefits occur on every level of treatment - the physical, the psychological, and the emotional.

1. The Physical Benefits

When you check into an inpatient rehab facility, there are many immediate physical benefits that you are likely to enjoy. In case you are dependent on alcohol and drugs, it might be difficult to you to quit because you may experience withdrawal.

As a direct result, most licensed and professional inpatient rehab centers will initially focus on detoxification to get rid of the addictive substances and any traces they might have left in your body and mind.

Instead of quitting cold turkey, a more effective solution would be to check into a certified and licensed medical detoxification facility. This could help you undergo withdrawal by managing the typical sings and symptoms of withdrawal. By so doing, the facility could virtually eliminate your risk of overdosing at a later date when you may not have ready and direct access to your substances of preferences. It could also simultaneously increase your chances of full recovery and success in the long term.

When you are enrolled in such a center, you will also be taken out of your normal environment - which could also have caused or contributed to your substance abuse problem in the first place.

Today, many people assume that the desire to use drugs and drink alcohol simply happens. However, there is more to it than this simple and untrue explanation. In fact, there are many triggers that could cause you to relapse, such as sights, smells, and sounds. Stress may also play a major role in causing you to relapse.

It is for this reason why you may want to seek inpatient rehab facilities in which you will be able to effectively avoid every trigger while also ensuring that you no longer feel like you are being tempted on a constant basis.

This is also important for eliminating the intense urge you might get to stop resisting your cravings for your drugs of choice. It could also help you deal with any other unforeseen complications through the help of the rehab facility.

Some of these inpatient rehabs also have medically trained and licensed personnel at hand and available. Therefore, in case you experience severe withdrawal and display the typical withdrawal symptoms, these members of staff will help you. They also have a higher likelihood of spotting any developments that could later pose to be physical threats to your sobriety and abstinence.

2. Psychological Benefits

Most inpatient rehab facilities provide a wide variety of psychological therapies and counseling modules. This wide range of rehabilitation and treatment options could help you address your present transitory state while you try to change from a life of active substance abuse addiction to one of abstinence and sobriety

They could also deal with your drug history - both on an individual and on a family level, as well as your future in recovery. By so doing, they could potentially improve your mental health and wellness.

The best programs also provide a wide variety of psychotherapy options to ensure that you benefit from them as much as you can before the time comes for you to check out of the inpatient rehab.

The reason behind these varied psychotherapy options is to reinforce the fact that no two recovering addicts are exactly the same. As such, your individual circumstances will determine the styles and types of treatment that could work best for you.

3. Emotional Benefits

Some inpatient rehab facilities consider emotional benefits to come in the form of mental and spiritual wellness and awareness. Depending on the philosophy of the center you consider, the emotional benefits you are going to receive during your stay at the facility should never be minimized.

Although physical dependence on alcohol and drugs is one of the major components in your dependence, your emotional safety and peace of mind after enrolling into one of these programs will prove to be a critical element in your treatment.

At the facility, also, you won't have to deal with screaming or sick children, stress from home, arguments with your family members and significant others, bills to clear, tension with other people, or even altercations with your colleagues and other people at work.

Therefore, when you enroll into an inpatient rehab center, you should note that you could have the perfect buffer between you and the world. This will provide you with unique opportunities to exclusively focus on getting better.

Advantages Of Inpatient Rehab For Alcoholism

Inpatient rehab, particularly for alcohol abuse and alcoholism is so effective because of the peculiar nature of such addiction. Today, everyone aged 21 and above in the United States is legally allowed to buy alcohol and use it. In most states, people can do so in a variety of places - including gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and bars - among others.

This is why residential rehabilitation is so important in treating addiction to intoxicating and mind altering substances like alcohol - especially given the fact that the drug of choice is available almost everywhere you look.

Therefore, when you opt for inpatient rehab for your alcoholism, you will be removing yourself from the permissive environment that would otherwise have compelled you to start drinking again. Instead, the facility will have policies that discourage the recovering addicts from bringing in any alcohol beverages into the center.

By so doing, inpatient rehab effectively provides a safe haven in which you can start getting used to a life of sobriety - away from all the old temptations that you would otherwise have had to deal with if you have opted to undergo detox, treatment, and rehabilitation on an outpatient basis.

Undergoing rehabilitation for alcohol abuse and addiction in inpatient and residential facilities will also provide you with a safer environment since you will no longer be able to see alcoholic beverages being advertised, go out and get alcohol, or even just go out to a party where people are drinking and could potentially cause you to follow suit.

How Inpatient Rehab Works

When you decide to seek treatment at an inpatient rehab center, the staff members will mostly focus on 3 main issues to help you overcome your substance abuse and addiction. These issues include:

Creating plans to help you achieve long term recovery and sustain it

Compelling you to make the decision to remain abstinent

Addressing the fact that you are powerless over your substance use

Addressing the destructive and unhealthy behaviors, thoughts, and attitudes that often tend to accompany drug abuse and alcohol drinking

To ensure you achieve these goals, the inpatient rehab will often require that you stay inside the center itself or inside a residential setting on the same property. While at the facility, you will be better placed to focus more of your energy and thoughts towards meeting the above goals.

Today, most of these centers work because they are:

a) Safety and Security

For starters, inpatient rehab will require that you undergo treatment in-house. This is the best option in most cases because the environment provided will be safe and secure from all sources of intoxicating and mind altering substances and any other temptations and triggers you might encounter if you were still at home.

Most of these facilities are also state-of-the-art and tend to feature the highest quality in treatment programing and rehabilitation services. All of these are evidence-based and will be tailored individually to meet your own unique needs and preferences.

While at the center, you will also get comfortable living accommodations, such as an apartment or even a dormitory type of setting with most if not all of the conveniences and amenities you most likely have at home.

Last but not least, the highly experienced staff members at the facility will provide you with strict round the clock supervision and monitoring to make sure that they meet all your concerns and needs and you are safe every single time.

b) Medical Detoxification

This is usually the first step towards full recovery. After quitting alcohol and/or drugs, you may experience psychological and physical withdrawal characterized by a variety of symptoms that might prove to be extremely painful and severely uncomfortable.

Depending on how severe your addiction, underlying medical conditions, co-occurring mental health issues, and the presence of more than two substances in the system, the withdrawal could potentially prove to be life-threatening.

This is why you need to check into an inpatient rehab facility - if only to receive medical detox services that could gradually help you withdrawal from intoxicating substances in the safest, most effective way possible.

Most inpatient rehab facilities also have safe detox programs in place on the site and in environments that are safe, comfortable, and clean. The experienced detoxification members of staff will create detox programs that are appropriate to you and drawn from many different services, including physical exercise, nutritional therapy, and medication therapy among other.

c) Comprehensive Treatment Programming

In the same way, among the main reasons to attend an inpatient rehab is that you can receive comprehensive treatment planning and execution. After you are considered to be psychologically and medically stable, the treatment professionals will start you on an intensive, highly structured, and individualized rehabilitation process to meet your unique needs and preferences.

In most cases, the treatment plan may include various treatments like group and individual therapy, therapeutic techniques, holistic healing, skills training, life training, coping skills, and family therapy among many others.

d) Aftercare

Last but not least, you should remember that although completing a treatment program might be a major accomplishment, this will not be the end to your recovery journey.

In fact, the real work of recovery and sobriety will start when you are back home and have resumed your daily lifestyle. During the first few months, you might want to follow the aftercare programs that were designed by your inpatient rehab facility. This way, you will get the added motivation and support you require as you continue transitioning back to your normal life without being afraid that you will relapse.

Overall, there are many other reasons to attend an inpatient rehab. Apart from the higher success rates - particularly with longer term residential rehabilitation - you will also gain from a myriad of other benefits that you may not be able to enjoy if you went the outpatient treatment way. This is why you should definitely consider this form of treatment after you've determined if it is the way to go for you.